Creation Care

I have had a pair of moosehide moccasins for five years now that I absolutely love. I love them because they remind me of how I have had the way I look at the Earth and how the way I approach Creation care has been changed by my Indigenous friends and neighbours. I love my moccasins because they remind me of a wise older First Nations woman I met at an Indigenous cultural center at the beginning of my own journey of discovering what reconciled relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people look like.

Last month I was in India where the people of Chennai were whacked with the worst flooding in 100 years. Hundreds died. Many more lost their homes and small businesses.

Facebook asked me if I was alright. Thanks Mark Z. Glad to know you care mate.

Every year during the rainy season, most of the slums in Phnom Penh are flooded with overflowing rivers and sewers. People literally live with a foot of dank black water in their home. They perch on wooden beds, continuing as if there weren't liquid feces floating around their feet. 

When I was growing up, my preferred diet earned me the nickname, “Papa’s little carnivore.” Years later I married someone with a similar palate: my Iowa-bred husband loves marinated chops, smoked turkey, pork tenderloin, and Pella bologna. For him, growing up, a meal without meat was just a snack.

I didn’t have a clue how to grill a pork chop when we were first married (I still don’t), so we went through a lot of chicken and ground beef. A meal would look the same in December as it did in June, and I didn’t think twice about it.

“Climate change is affecting us all, and is especially impacting our Indigenous brothers and sisters here in North America and in most of the global south.”

These were just some of the challenging words spoke by Dr. Katharine Hayhoe spoke in her recent address at Tyndale University College and A Rocha Canada’s A Climate for Change event.

You’ve likely heard a lot lately about the Paris climate talks that wrapped up a few weeks ago, and you’ve likely been left wondering what it’s all about. The follow up from Paris has seen lots of high talk from government officials and lots of complicated jargon, but little plain-English explanations of what the agreement actually says and what it means.

So in case you’ve been wondering what this whole Paris Agreement is all about, here are five things you need to know:

One Inuit leader said "we are human barometers of climate change."

An ancient Chinese proverb states: “Whoever defines the terms wins the argument.” I used to quote this proverb when I was teaching logic courses as a member of the philosophy department at a college in Chicago. The proverb is true. If you let me define the terms of discussion about any hot-button social issue, then I most likely will win the debate.

While the scientific and policy issues raised in the encyclical will get the most press attention, Francis is primarily doing theology. He emphasizes repeatedly that non-human creatures are not here only to serve us.

It is a letter that brings substantial hope as it bridges across both all creation and human society, inspiring everyone to envision an “integral ecology” for which creation and human society have been waiting in eager expectation.

We need not be afraid to teach our kids hard things and ask difficult questions.